Park Place Productions

Park Place Productions (originally called Park Place Production Team) was a development company near San Diego, California, started in 1989 by programmers Michael Knox and Troy Lyndon with $3,000 on Knox's credit card (Sauer). In a few years, it grew to be North America's largest independent game developer with over 100 employees and clients including Electronic Arts, Acclaim, and Virgin (Lyndon).

This meteoric growth brought rapid expansion and diversification. A green screen filming studio was built, which benefited the company's renowned sports games (Lyndon). Nearby contract developer Knight Technologies was acquired (Forhan 41). Software testing was moved in-house (then spun off into a company called Bug Busters) (Private). A publishing arm for DOS and Windows titles called Spirit of Discovery was formed ("Entrepreneur of the Year"), which was buoyed by a "hybrid publishing agreement" with Konami (Sauer). (Spirit of Discovery later became an independent entity and relocated with the Knox family to Kaneohe, Hawaii. [Spirit of Discovery]) The company also expanded into edutainment and practical applications (Sauer).

However, by late 1993, Park Place had clearly overextended itself. As deadlines were missed, publishers quit paying and pulled their contracts ("Harsh"). Also, Lyndon left that November because of a dispute. Eventually the company couldn't make payroll ("Empty").

Sony, Park Place's largest customer, offered to buy the company, but Knox refused to sell. As a result, 30 employees resigned on December 27, 1993, to join a new Sony Imagesoft operation in San Diego's Sorrento Valley ("Empty") (what became Sony Interactive Studios America/989 Studios). Nevertheless, Park Place attempted to rebuild and limped along with a much smaller staff (Private). Park Place later filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Sony, alleging the electronics giant attempted a hostile takeover ("African-American software company").

Lyndon later ran Christian game maker Left Behind Games, started in 2001. Knox served on the board of directors for a time (Jenkins). Knox died of colon cancer on September 15, 2009, at age 48 ("Software Expert").

Originally contracted to Knight Technologies, this got caught up in Park Place's implosion, which led to RazorSoft suing for breach of contract. [13] RazorSoft then brought in programmer Glen Volk to write a new version; he finished it, but it was cancelled.